1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to a baking agent for leavened doughs and processes for producing such baking agents.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Yeast raised baked products as bread and cake products such are produced from flour, all or the majority of which is flour obtained from wheat. The quality of the baked products depends especially on the quality of the flour and particularly on the working of the dough. Only by intensely kneading the dough, the gluten in the flour gets the desired properties such as great extensibility, elasticity and gas holding ability.
The change from manually working the dough to working the dough by machine raises many problems in the production of dough. Only when lipids are added as emulsifiers, is knead tolerance increased.
The composition of lipids occuring naturally in wheat flour include a series of lipid components, which are also found in crude lecithin, for example lysophosphatidyl choline, phosphatidyl choline, N-acylphosphatidyl ethanolamines, phosphatidyl inositol, phosphatidyl acid, lysophosphatide acid, phosphatidyl glycerol, lysophosphatidyl ethanolamine, lysophosphatidyl glycerol, diglycerides, monoglycerides, triglycerides, stearins and the like. The lipids found in wheat flour play a part which is not insignificant. This part can be increased very clearly by addition of lechithin or synthetic emulsifiers. However, the addition of lechithin or synthetic emulsifiers poses problems due to the particular components in the lecithin or synthetic emulsifiers as well as the ratio of the particular phospholipids in the lechithin. (L. Wassermann, Fette Seifen Anstrichmittel 1983, 85, 20; Y. Pomeranz, Food Technol. 1970, 24, 928).
The role of lipids as emulsifiers in the form of the so-called crude lecithins, extracted from animal or vegetable materials, such as eggs, oliferous seeds and oilseeds, such as coconut-kopra, oil palm, peanuts, rape, sunflower kernel, sojabeans, oil palm and olives (J. Eichberg, Kirk-Othmer, Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology Vol. 14 Seite 250-269) in doughs and baking masses (H. D. Jodlbauer ZlR 1977 (1) 33-45; Y. Pomeranz, cereal Chem. 1970, 47, 435 ff; Y. Pomeranz, Food Technol. 1970, 24, 928 ff. I. B. M. Coppock, J. Sci. Food Agr. 1954, 5, 19 ff; DE-PS 1183 452; J. Pomeranz in B. F. Szuhaj and G. R. List `Lecithins` AOCS 1985) has been investigated in detail.
As early as the 1940's, lecithin in amounts of from 0.1 to 0.5%, was employed in flour to bake bread. (L. Wassermann, Fette Seifen Anstrichmittel 1983, 85, 120; DE-PS 719 268; W. Schafer, Backerei Techn. 1972, 73). The consistency of dough when worked by machine was improved. The consistency of commercial lechithin is pastry to fluid. For better handling in baking, lecithin is attached to flour-like ingredients. However good baking results are not provided every time since the quality and composition of lecithin are uncertain depending on the origin of the lecithin being employed. Due to the uncertain quality and composition synthetic emulsifiers were used to a greater extent.
Only through the use of synthetic emulsifiers, alone or in mixture with lecithin, variations in the properties of bakery goods scarcely occured wherein the dough was worked by machine. Preferred emulsifiers were mono- and diglycerides of diacetyl tartaric acid or mono- and diglycerides of fruit acids such as citric acid and lactic acid, as well as other emulsifiers, for example polyglycerol esters, partially or completely esterified with fatty acids.
Using synthetic emulsifiers equally good properties are always obtained. However, quite recently an effort has been directed to put on the market foods which are free from synthetic components.